In a note to our circulation department, TIME-Reader Raymond Weber of San Antonio explains how he got into the habit of giving TIME subscriptions as Christmas gifts to friends and relatives.

Wrote Reader Weber: "Quite a few years ago when I was in college, my roommate and I both subscribed to TIME, read it avidly, even copied TIME'S style in writing to each other when we were apart for summer vacation. The Christmas before we graduated, we were both stumped for a present for each other. We could not afford anything that the other really needed. Finally, we decided that since both our TIME subscriptions expired in December, we would just give TIME to each other. This was not only the perfect gift, but also completely reciprocal. This continued for years after we were out of school. It finally ended when my friend married a girl who was also an avid TIME reader. She had a longterm, paid-up subscription which, my friend claims, served as her dowry." And, Mr. Weber continued, after the marriage of his friend, he transferred the TIME gift subscription to a cousin and his wife, both of whom were regular TIME readers, and has been renewing it ever since.

As many of you have discovered, a subscription to TIME is a very popular Christmas gift. And this is the season when our subscription department is especially busy with such gift orders. Busy as they are, however, there is no closed season on the various subscription problems that must be handled.

Here is a recent example that came from a TIME reader by the name of Nip Brigham. It began: "If there is a twin in your office please let him or her handle this problem.

My name is Nip Brigham. My twin brother is Nap Brigham. We both get mail at Post Office Box 1, Dyersburg, Tenn. Nip and Nap both subscribe to TIME--Nip for years, Nap just started. You have now dropped Nip's subscription. You must have extended Nip's with Nap's. Nip's has a year and a half to run, Nap's one year. Please send two copies each week--one to Nip and one to Nap. Nap gets to the box before I do." A little investigation cleared up the mistake. It seems that twin brother Nip (christened Willie but always called Nip because he drank so much milk as a baby) began subscribing to TIME in 1945. He would read it first, then pass the copy along to Nap (christened Walter but always called Nap because he slept so much as a child), who finally got tired of secondhand copies and bought a subscription.

Reported our subscription sleuth: "Nip was only too right. We had not trusted our own eyes. We simply added Nap's new subscription to Nip's old one on the supposition that they were one and the same Brigham. Adjustment has been made, and Nip has been advised." By now two copies of TIME are going to Box 1 in Dyersburg every week--one for Nip and one for Nap.

Cordially yours,

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